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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future Food

Impossible Foods Applies to Sell “Bleeding” Burgers in the EU

Impossible is gearing up to start selling across the pond. Bloomberg broke the news yesterday that the plant-based meat startup had filed with the EU to gain regulatory approval for their products — specifically soy hemoglobin, the molecule that gives Impossible’s meat its “bleeding” flavor and appearance.

We reached out to Impossible, who confirmed that it has indeed filed paperwork with the European Food Safety Authority, the EU agency that provides independent scientific advice regarding the food chain.

“Impossible Foods’ intention is to sell plant-based meat in every single region of the world,” the PR rep told me. “As always, the company will meet or exceed all food-safety regulations in every single region of the world, including Europe.”

Impossible might have a trickier time gaining EU regulatory approval than other areas of the world. Europe is far stricter on genetically modified foods than the U.S. While technically heme isn’t genetically modified — it’s the output of genetically modified yeast — it could still throw up some red flags for the European Food Safety Authority.

Even if it does again approval, Impossible will have to distinguish itself from very crowded plant-based meat space in Europe. Retail shelves already sport plenty of alt-meat options from giants like Quorn and Unilever’s Vegetarian Butcher. Nestlé also sells its plant-based burger in McDonald’s Germany. And let’s not forget that Beyond, Impossible’s chief competitor, currently sells in several countries in the EU and is opening a new manufacturing facility in the Netherlands.

Since Impossible’s plant-based meat technically is free from GMO’s, I’m guessing that eventually the company will get regulatory approval to sell in the EU. The bigger question is whether the market will be so saturated by then that Impossible won’t be able to create as much brand recognition as it has in other parts of the world.

Future Food: I Tried the Dunkin’ Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

I’m visiting New York this week, and as I was walking through the Financial District yesterday trying to get my bearings without head butting people walking upstream, I saw it. A sign from Dunkin Donuts for The Beyond Breakfast Sandwich. Great taste, plant-based and made with 10 grams of protein.

I had just had lunch mere minutes ago, but I had to try it. So I ducked in and ordered.

The first thing I noticed was how hard Dunkin’ is pushing the sandwich. It’s one of the most prominently featured menu items, and all of the employees were sporting t-shirts featuring the sandwich.

I paid my $4.78 (including tax) and unwrapped the sandwich. It looked kind of unremarkable — but no more so than a typical fast food sausage-egg-and-cheese breakfast muffin. However, the sausage patty was noticeably thicker than a typical meat one. The texture was spongy, similar to the Beyond burger, with a bit more chew. It was a grey color that resembled sausage more than the bright pink interior of a cooked Beyond burger resembles that of a medium-rare beef burger.

As far as taste goes, however, it was spot on. The patty was lightly spiced, salty, and fatty. True, this is coming from a vegetarian. So in the pursuit of journalistic excellence, I shared the sandwich with a carnivorous friend who said that if she didn’t know, she probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it wasn’t made of meat. “I think it’s better than the burger,” she said. “More similar to the product it’s imitating.”

Despite how hard Dunkin’ was pushing the sandwich, I didn’t see anyone else order it while I was there. Fair — it was 12 PM, and the sandwich is definitely more breakfast fare. I asked my cashier if people liked the Beyond Sausage Sandwich, and she said it was slowly getting more popular and that orders had really picked up over the past few weeks.

Dunkin’ is clearly counting on its popularity to keep rising. This week the chain announced it was rolling out the sandwich to all of its locations across the country starting next month. Though that’s no guarantee that they won’t pull them off menus at any time, like Tim Horton’s did in Canada.

Selfishly, I hope that doesn’t happen. I really enjoyed the Beyond Sausage sandwich and think it’s an important step for Beyond — and plant-based meat in general — to break into the fast-food breakfast space. Next up, maybe they’ll swap out the egg for a JUST Egg patty. Now that would definitely make it impossible for me to walk by a Dunkin’ without stopping in for a snack.

Gene editing our way to more protein

In this newsletter we talk a lot about alternative proteins meant to imitate (or replicate) meat, dairy, or eggs. It can be easy to forget about all of the other protein sources that might be sitting right under our noses.

Literally — look down at your shirt. This month the FDA approved a new gene-edited cotton plant whose seeds, which are protein-rich but typically contain a dangerous toxin, are safe to eat.

I know, lots of folks out there are GMO haters. But let’s put that can of worms aside for a moment and just think about the potential of gene-editing technologies — like the oft-mentioned CRISPR — to open up brand new protein sources. Or perhaps just make ones we already love more plentiful and better for the planet.

What other overlooked proteins are right under our noses?

Photo: Pizza Hut

Protein ’round the web

    • One Pizza Hut location in Arizona will be testing out a new pizza topped with plant-based meat from Morningstar Farms’ Incogmeato line.
    • Hawaiian gas station and convenience chain Minit Stop will swap in Impossible Foods’ “beef” for all of its traditional beef products (h/t VegNews).
    • Swiss startup Planted, which makes plant-based chicken, has raised 7 million Swiss francs (~$7 million USD), according to Crunchbase.
    • The Good Food Institute has awarded $4.5 million to accelerate research in plant-based and cultured meat in 2019.

That’s it from me this week! I’m off to get another Beyond Sausage Sandwich because… research?

Eat well,
Catherine

SKS 2019: IBM and McCormick Use AI to Make the Best Possible Barbecue Chips (and More)

Say you’re developing a new barbecue potato chip. You’re using spices from McCormick, which has not one, not two, but over 100 types of garlic flavoring. How do you decide which garlic(s) to use, and in which combinations, to make the best product for your target demographic?

That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) can help. Last year, McCormick, the largest flavor company in the world, went public with its five-plus-year partnership with IBM to build a flavor platform using machine learning. We dove deep into this partnership at SKS 2019, when The Spoon’s Chris Albrecht spoke with McCormick’s Chief Science Officer Hamed Faridi and IBM Principal Researcher Richard Goodwin about how AI can help make better, tastier products in less time and with fewer dead ends.

Check out the video below to watch the entire panel (it’s super nerdy and cool).

Hamed Faridi on the SKS 2019 stage. (Photo: The Spoon)

To whet your appetite, here’s a quick overview of what Faridi and Goodwin discussed in the session.

“The [CPG] iterating process is a very time-consuming, old system,” said Faridi during his onstage presentation. “But that’s the only thing the industry has.” All of that changed when Faridi was driving home and heard an NPR interview with a scientist from IBM’s Chef Watson, a program that develops bepsoke recipes based off of chemical flavor affinities (for example, leeks and chocolate.) Immediately, he was struck: this was the missing piece of the puzzle to develop better products in a smarter way.

Computers can’t taste or smell, so how do they know which flavors taste well together? That’s where data comes in. McCormick has kept all of its data from various flavor development processes and product experiments since the 1980s. IBM’s machine learning algorithms can take those data points and make suggestions about new ingredient combinations without having to go through all the trial, error, and staff training that a human R&D team requires.

The result is a 70 percent reduction in product development time and increased stickiness in the market. Faridi said that the IBM partnership is working so well they expect all of their labs will be using AI by late 2021.

This session was a fascinating look into how a flavor giant and a technology giant have teamed up to make better everyday products. Watch the full video below and get ready for more SKS 2019 content coming your way over the next few weeks!

SKS 2019: Case Study: McCormick & IBM Build an AI-Powered Flavor Platform

Israeli Insect Protein Startup Flying Spark Gets Investment from Seafood Company Thai Union

Today Flying Spark, an Israeli startup that makes food products from larval insect protein, announced a partnership with Thai Union Group PCL, one of the world’s largest seafood producers. As part of the deal, Thai Union will also invest in the Israeli company.

Thai Union did not disclose how much it would invest in Flying Spark. However, a press release sent to The Spoon did reveal that this is the first investment by Thai Union from its new $30 million venture fund intended for food tech companies, including those in the alternative protein space.

While dining on larvae might not sound appetizing, at least to most Western consumers, insects are actually an incredibly sustainable source of protein. They require very little food or water, grow quickly, and the whole insect can be eaten — which means no food waste.

Companies like Aspire (which acquired cricket protein bar company Exo), Chirp’s, Orchestra Provisions and others are all trying to get Western consumers to eat insects. Even some celebrities have taken up the cause to advocate for bugs.

Considering Thai Union is one of the world’s largest seafood producers, however, their interest might be more focused on insect protein’s other main use: cheap, sustainable animal feed.

Currently the majority of feed for farmed fish is made from, well, smaller fish. That can be expensive and also means that those fish can’t be sold to consumers. Using insects to cultivate farmed fish could be a cheaper high-protein option.

If that is indeed the route they’re going, Flying Spark won’t be the first to get into the space. Last year French startup Ÿnsect raised €110 million (~$124 million) to build a giant farm to grow larvae for fish feed. However, with demand for fish predicted to increase by more than 50 percent over the next 15 years, there’ll be plenty of room for multiple players to swim onto the scene.

Thanks to Gene Editing, Cotton (Yes, Cotton) Could Be a New Protein Staple

Odds are, you come into contact with cotton every day, in your clothes, your bedsheets, and even your coffee filters.

Soon the “Fabric of Our Lives” might be on your plates, too. Well, sort of. This month the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared a genetically engineered form of cotton, developed by Keerti Rathore, a professor of plant biotechnology at Texas A&M University, officially safe to eat. The gene editing only affects the seeds of the plant, not the fluffy stuff used to make your t-shirts, pants, and socks.

Seeds are often used as a source of protein or fat — think sunflower, pumpkin, etc. — but cotton seeds contain gossypol, a chemical that’s harmful to humans. Food companies have already developed a process to remove the chemical from pressed cottonseed oil, which is currently sold in various food products and vegetable oil mixes. However, Rathore’s process, called “RNA interference,” shuts off the gossypol gene in cotton seeds so people can safely eat them in their whole form. It also keeps the gossypol in the rest of the cotton plant, where it acts as a natural pest deterrent.

Since cotton is relatively plentiful, Rathore told Reuters that he hopes that the seeds could be an affordable, nutrient-rich source of protein when added to products like granola, breads or energy bars. Cottonseed meal (what remains after the seeds have been pressed for oil) could also be used to feed fish, pigs and other animals, all of which are also sensitive to gossypol.

However, it’ll be a while before humans (or fish) get a chance to sample these new gene-edited cotton seeds. Rathore hasn’t given an exact timeline, but he told the New Food Economy he first has to license out his technology to seed companies, which can then sell to farmers.

According to Rathore, the impact from adding cotton seeds to the food system could be significant. “There are approximately 10.8 trillion grams of protein locked up in the annual global output of cottonseed,” he told Reuters. “This is enough to meet the basic protein requirements of over 500 million people at a rate of 50 grams of protein per person per day.” Since many of the world’s cotton-producing countries, specifically in African and Asia, struggle with malnutrition, that protein could make a real difference.

The cotton seeds aren’t the first FDA-approved gene-edited food. Earlier this year biotech company Calyxt began selling a gene-edited soybean oil that doesn’t require trans fats for shelf stability. Yield10 Biosciences is developing genetically engineered corn kernels to produce greater outputs. We’ve also been eating FDA-approved genetically modified foods (GMO’s) for decades, especially corn and soy.

Like GMO’s, gene editing foods — including those made using CRISPR — carry a fair bit of controversy. However, the potential benefits are significant. The new gossypol-free cotton seeds give a glimpse into how gene editing can impact our food system. As climate change and deteriorating soil conditions make it harder to cultivate certain crops, gene editing technology could not only save some of our favorite foods — like coffee and chocolate — but could also help us open the door to entirely new protein sources. Throw in a population set to hit roughly 10 billion by 2050, and these sources could be critical to helping us feed a hungry world.

Pizza Hut Partners With Zume and MorningStar to Put a Plant-based Pizza in a Round Box

Pizza Hut is following the footsteps of dozens of other major restaurant chains and joining the movement for plant-based meat. The Plano, TX-based company announced today that it has partnered with MorningStar Farms’ Incogmeato label to top one of its pies with plant-based sausage.

Dubbed the Garden Specialty Pizza, said pie will be available starting October 23 for $10 per pizza for a limited time at the 3602 E. Thomas Road Pizza Hut location in Phoenix, AZ, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. “Limited supply” in this context means until supplies last, which, given the current craze for plant-based meat products among consumers, could be mere hours.

For both companies, releasing a pizza topped with plant-based meat is a way to ride the coattails of the alt-meat craze. The partnership allows Pizza Hut to compete with the likes of Little Caesars, who tested a plant-based sausage pizza with Impossible earlier this year. For Kellogg-owned MorningStar, promoting its new plant-based brand via a major restaurant chain could help the company’s ongoing efforts to reinvent itself as an innovative alt-meat company on par with Beyond Meat and Impossible, rather than a decades-old peddler of first-generation meat alternatives.

A pie topped with plant-based meat isn’t the only pizza innovation that particular Phoenix Pizza Hut location will see. The Garden Specialty Pizza will be served up in a round box The Hut has developed with pizza-tech pioneer Zume, which recently acquired a company to manufacture its own line of more sustainable packaging.

For Pizza Hut, Zume designed a box that uses less packaging than its traditional square counterpart, takes up less space in a customer’s fridge, and, most importantly, keep the pizza hotter in transit. It’s also industrially compostable. Pizza Hut says once the limited run in Phoenix is over, it will look at ways to distribute the box more widely in future.

All proceeds from both initiatives will be donated to Arizona Forward, an organization that brings businesses and civic leaders together to develop sustainability goals for the state.

Dunkin’ Accelerates Timeline for Nationwide Release of Beyond Meat Breakfast Sandwich

Dunkin’ is speeding up the nationwide rollout of its plant-based Beyond Sausage sandwich, which was developed especially for the breakfast chain by Beyond Meat.

Dunkin’ first launched the Beyond Breakfast sandwich in 164 Manhattan locations back in July. According to CNBC, the chain was planning to roll out the new offering throughout the U.S. sometime in January. However, today news broke that the nationwide release will happen a lot sooner — November 6, to be exact.

It may only be three months earlier than expected, but moving up the release timeline indicates that Dunkin’s Beyond Breakfast sandwich is selling well — or at least better than expected. In fact, Dunkin’ told CNBC that the plant-based sausage offering was their number two selling sandwich in the test Manhattan locations and that sales were more than double Dunkin’s original forecast.

We don’t know what the initial forecast was for the Beyond Breakfast sandwich, but its popularity is no surprise. Plant-based meat sales are booming across the country, especially in quick-service restaurants, where new faux meat items are leading to upticks in sales, media attention and long, long lines. It’s no wonder that Dunkin’ wants to capitalize on this trend and establish itself as a purveyor of Beyond breakfast sausage before other QSR’s roll out their own breakfasty plant-based offerings.

However, just because the Beyond Breakfast sandwich is heading out across the country doesn’t mean it’ll stay there. Last month Canadian fast-food chain Tim Horton’s abruptly stopped serving Beyond Meat items in all but two provinces, just a few months after it rolled out the plant-based meat in roughly 4,000 of its 4,800 locations. The chain did not disclose why it decided to dramatically cut back on its alt-meat offerings.

Dunkin’s nationwide effort with Beyond Meat might have brighter prospects. At present, it’s the only QSR with Beyond breakfast sausage on the menu, which could help it differentiate itself from other fast-food companies peddling alt-meat offerings — especially in the morning.

Maybe next we’ll see Dunkin’ lean into the plant-based trend even more with a JUST Egg patty.

SKS 2019: How Can Tech Break Down Barriers to Get More People in the Kitchen?

At the Smart Kitchen Summit we bring together innovators who want to make the kitchen more high-tech, connected, and futuristic. But what does that matter if it doesn’t actually get people in the kitchen and cooking?

That’s exactly the question that the first panel of SKS 2019 tackled onstage last week. Nancy Roman, of the Partnership for a Healthier America, Beth Altringer, of Harvard, and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor spoke with The Spoon’s Michael Wolf about how we can build a bridge to the future of food and cooking. Without alienating people.

Onstage Roman emphasized that the kitchen of the future should have one goal: building a healthier population. One way to do that is to make it easier for people to cook simple, nutritious meals at home — be it with a new cooking app, a recipe platform, or something else entirely.

For Dr. Altringer, the kitchen of the future isn’t all rosy. In fact, she showed data that suggests outsourcing more and more cooking processes to automation or other convenience measures doesn’t necessarily equate to happier eaters. “People enjoy food more when they know they worked for it,” she said onstage. One way they might cook and enjoy it is by employing her Flavor Genome Project, which is gamifying food preparation to help consumers and chefs figure out better dishes and fix flops.

With all this talk of automation, you’d think that a career chef like Sanjeev Kapoor might be worried about what the kitchen will look like down the road. Instead, he’s excited about it. “It’s an opportunity,” he said onstage. For example, Kapoor leverages social media to reach more viewers and leverages tech to help feed 1.8 million kids per day for his nutrition outreach project.

Overall, it was a really fascinating way to kick off the summit, and a departure from some of the typical conversations you hear around the future of food. If you’re interested in how tech can help us eat better, you can listen to the full video below! Keep an eye out for more content from SKS 2019 coming your way over the next few weeks.

SKS 2019: Building The Bridge To The Future of Food & Cooking

Geltor Partners with GELITA to Make Animal-Free Collagen, Eventually for the CPG Industry

With Halloween coming up, there’s a chance you might find yourself snacking on some brightly-colored gummy candies (my personal weakness) over the next few weeks. Though the candies may be delicious, the process for making gelatin involves grinding up assorted animal parts and is … not super appetizing.

Maybe in a few years you’ll be able to snack on gummies made from gelatin that’s derived not from animals but from fermentation. San Leandro, California-based company Geltor is currently using microbes to “grow” collagen and its constituent proteins, including gelatin.

The startup raised a $18.2 million Series A round last year and stated a goal of launching its animal-free collagen in the food industry by 2020. According to Food Navigator, yesterday Geltor got one step closer to that goal. The company has partnered with industry collagen maker GELITA to commercialize its animal-free collagen in supplements, like vitamins and skincare products, which will be for sale next year.

Geltor will also launch its animal-free collagen in other verticals too — namely the CPG industry. Referencing the GELITA partnership, Geltor co-founder Alexander Lorestani told Food Navigator: “This is the first step, but we’ll continue to look ahead to the broader food and beverage industry to strike partnership there.”

Geltor is one of a group of Silicon Valley startups making animal product alternatives through fermentation technology — that is, creating new proteins using genetically engineered microbes. Perfect Day makes animal-free dairy and Clara Foods is tackling eggs, starting with egg whites. Motif FoodWorks and Air Protein (formerly Kiverdi) are leveraging fermentation to make a broader range of alternative proteins for food usage.

Geltor may be launching in the supplement industry, but its technology could have a widespread impact in the food space. In fact, a surprising amount of everyday products contain gelatin or collagen, from broths to canned beans to caesar dressing. “We’re building the business to broadly serve the CPG industry,” said Lorestani in the aforementioned article. Which means in a few years, the process to make your gummy candies, not to mention a lot of other staple foods, could be a lot more appetizing.

Future Food: Are Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods The New Tysons and Perdues?

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

This week the New York Times ran a story on the front page of their Business section entitled “The New Makers of Plant-Based Meat? Big Meat Companies.”

A lot of what author David Yaffe-Bellany wrote in the piece we’ve already covered in this newsletter or on The Spoon. In short: large corporations like Tyson, Perdue, and Smithfield, which have traditionally made their living from animal products, are rebranding as “protein” companies and rolling out their own meat alternative offerings.

But there was something new that caught my eye in Yaffe-Bellany’s article. It wasn’t about the giant meat corporations, but about the disruptors themselves — namely Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

“In some ways, the plant-based meat start-ups are beginning to resemble major food companies themselves,” Yaffe-Bellany writes. “Beyond Meat is valued at nearly $9 billion, making it about a third the size of Tyson.” Consider that Tyson is the second-largest meat processing company in the world, and that puts into sharp perspective just how huge Beyond Meat really is.

Especially telling is a quote from Beyond Meat’s CEO Ethan Brown in reference to Big Meat companies. “I don’t want to collaborate with them,” Brown told the Times. “I want to be them.”

It seems that Beyond and Impossible are gearing up to become Big Plant-based Meat. But with great power comes great responsibility — and great expectations.

With their product shortage a few months ago, Impossible Foods has already gotten a taste of the outrage that happens when they fail to meet demand. The company has since partnered with global processing firm the OSI Group to quadruple capacity, but as Impossible continues to grow and penetrate new markets (cough, retail, cough), any future shortages could have an even more detrimental effect on the brand — and on the reputation of plant-based meat on the whole.

If companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods do indeed want to become the next generation of Big Meat, it could put their principles to the test. Both companies have frequently vocalized their mission to save the planet by replacing traditional meat with plant-based alternatives. But as these early movers become (even more) major food corporations, will they leave any room for younger plant-based players to enter the scene?

In short, Big Meat may be getting into plant-based meat. But plant-based meat is getting Big, too.

Nestlé’s PB Triple Play, made with plant-based burger, cheese, and bacon. Photo: Nestlé

With Pigs Out, Plant-based Pork is In

One thing that could nudge more folks to eat more plant-based meat is the impending global pork shortage. China’s pig populations are going to be halved by the end of this year thanks to an outbreak of African Swine Flu. Since China produces roughly half of the pork in the world, that means that soon, your bacon is going to be a lot pricier.

The price hike means that pork could soon reach price parity with plant-based sausage and bacon. That alone could motivate some folks to try out alternatives, especially as companies start to diversify beyond burgers and make more pork alternatives.

But the bigger motivation for consumers to switch to plant-based pork lies in food safety. The outbreak African Swine Flu could make consumers cautious to consume meat, especially since it comes on the heels of a beef recall over E. coli contamination earlier this year. Plants, though not immune to outbreaks, could tempt consumers spooked by food safety risks with animal products, especially as alternatives improve to taste more and more like the real thing.

Photo: Plated

Protein ’round the web

  • As of last week, meal kit company Plated has added Beyond Meat to its repertoire. Subscribers will have access to one recipe featuring the plant-based meat per month.
  • Oatly is bringing its oat milk ice cream to the U.K. through a partnership with Tesco, the largest British grocery chain (h/t Livekindly).
  • Plant-based meat brand Lightlife is expanding its retail footprint. Its animal-free burgers, sausages, bratwurst and ground “meat” will soon be available in more than 12,000 stores nationwide.

That’s it from me this week! ICYMI, here’s a wrapup of some of the alternative protein conversations that went down at SKS 2019 last week.

Eat well,
Catherine

Impending Global Pork Shortage Could Mean Big Things for Plant-Based Bacon

Bacon lovers, prepare to tighten your belts. According to Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, the U.S. could experience shortages of ham and pork bellies as early as 2020 (h/t Bloomberg).

The shortage is due to an epidemic of African Swine Flu, which is rampaging through China’s pork industry. It’s so severe that NPR estimates that by the end of 2019, China’s pig population could be cut in half. Since China currently cultivates roughly half of the pork in the world, the outbreak will have some serious ripple effects on global pork consumption — ones that we will feel in the U.S. in the form of rising prices in the pork section of the grocery store.

That’s bad news for people who loves their bacon, ham, and pork chops. But it could be very good news for the growing number of companies producing plant-based pork products, especially bacon.

Several companies are developing their own alternative versions of the popular breakfast meat, or making technology to help others do so. Startups Hooray Foods and Prime Roots are both in the (very) early stages of commercializing their alt-bacon, and there have been murmurs that Beyond Meat is adding bacon to its product roadmap. Ecovative makes mushroom root scaffolds for meat alternatives, which it has successfully tested to create vegan bacon. Even Big Food is getting in on it: just last week, Nestlé announced it had developed its own version of animal-free bacon to complement its plant-based Awesome burger.

When it comes to other pork products, however, there are fewer options. Beyond makes a plant-based sausage, and there are products peddling jackfruit as an alternative to pulled pork. Right Treat in Hong Kong sells Omnipork, an alternative to ground pork geared towards Asian palates. However, we could start seeing new players creating a variety of plant-based pork products if China’s shortage continues.

According to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world. That means that there’s not only a huge opportunity for companies to develop pork alternatives, but also a pressing need for them to do so if outbreaks like the one in China continue.

Bacon seems a tasty place to start.

SKS Hot Seat: CocoTerra’s CEO on Why You (Yes, You) Should Make Chocolate From Scratch At Home

When you think about things you can make at home — bread, pasta, juice — chocolate is probably not something that jumps to mind. It’s a complicated, time-intensive process that takes skill and special equipment to master.

But what if there was a machine that could do it all for you? CocoTerra is a new startup lowering the barrier to entry to home chocolate making with the world’s first countertop chocolate-making machine. The device lets even the most basic home cooks create their own bespoke chocolate in just two hours.

We were so intrigued by this idea that we chose CocoTerra as one of the finalists for the SKS 2019 Startup Showcase, which just happened this week. In between giving out (very tasty) samples of chocolate, CocoTerra CEO Nate Saal sat down in the SKS Hot Seat to answer a few rapid-fire questions on his device, the potential of personalization, and how he envisions the future of the food ecosystem.

Check out the video below! And keep your eyes peeled for more videos from SKS 2019 coming your way soon.

SKS Hot Seat Interview: Nate Saal of CocoTerra